the house at riverton

On the eve of a glittering society party, by the lake of a grand English country house, a young poet takes his life. The only witnesses, sisters Hannah and Emmeline Hartford, will never speak to each other again.

Winter 1999

Grace Bradley, ninety-eight, one-time housemaid of Riverton Manor, is visited by a young director making a film about the poet’s suicide. Ghosts awaken and old memories – long consigned to the dark reaches of Grace’s mind – begin to sneak back through the cracks. A shocking secret threatens to emerge, something history has forgotten but Grace never could.

Set as the war-shattered Edwardian summer surrenders to the decadent twenties, The House at Riverton is a thrilling mystery and a compelling love story.

If I could sum up this book in one gif, it would be this:

I carried this book around for several weeks and complained a lot because it was so thick and heavy and took me forever to finish. But I REGRET NOTHING. NOTHIIIIING.

Reading this book was like going on a long, long car trip to your favorite place in the world. At first you’re so excited that you kinda ignore everything else and irritably wish you could just get to your destination already, because you know how fulfilled you’ll be when you finally get over this arduous trip.

Towards the middle, you start to get interested in the sights and scenes you’re passing by. Curiosities pop up and hold your attention, and you slightly forget about your destination. Something on the road holds your interest more at the moment.

Eventually, the things you pass by seem familiar, and you recognize that these are all signs that point out you’re getting closer and closer to the end of your journey, and this fills you with so much anticipation because finally, you’re so close..but at the same time you dread the end because the trip wasn’t as arduous as it had seemed at first, and now you’re reluctant to let go of the things that held your interest on your way here.

When you finally get to your destination, your favorite place in the world, you’re elated because the trip was so worth it, no matter how long it took and what you had to go through to get here. Yet, at the same time, you glance wistfully down the road you just traveled on, because while there were times when it was tiring and things seemed to move quite slowly, the journey was just as great as getting to the end of it.